Hong Kong´s Fung Kam-hung is running a multi-day ultra marathon across Antarctica despite only having one leg

Fung Kam-hung spiralled into depression following a gruesome accident that robbed him of a leg, but little did he know what fate had in store for him as the seemingly dark day opened him up to love and running. In 1979, Fung became trapped between a motor bike and a tram. He was dragged towards the tram platform and watched as his leg was ripped off. “I knew it was a disaster as soon as I saw it,” said Fung, 65. “I was terrified but it was painless. I was in shock. I couldn’t think of anything but I was cold as I’d lost a lot of blood.” Sport was a central part of Fung’s life – he played anything involving a ball – and he could not imagine giving up his passion. “I had one thought in mind – as long as I can stand and walk, that will be fine,” he said. “A lot of the handicapped people try to walk away from the real world to try and protect ourselves,” he said. But Fung rediscovered his positive outlook for life when he fell in love with the nurse who treated him in hospital, Chong Bing-ying. They are still married to this day. When they started a family they wanted to encourage their children to get into sports – Fung would take his daughter to a local athletics track and they would train by chasing each other. That is how his running habit started, and then he entered a 10 kilometre race despite never having run long distances even before his accident. Chong soon followed suit and entered a 30km race. At the age of 65, Fung has now completed two of the 250km multi-day 4 Deserts Race Series in the Gobi and the Atacama with Chong, and this year they will run their third in Antarctica in November.

posted Thursday June 7th